Where those associated with Western films from around the world are laid to rest.

Friday, October 14, 2016

RIP Tonino Valerii

Rete 8

October 14, 2016

Film director Cinema, Tonino Valerii has died

Bereavement in the Italian cinema. Director Tonino
Valerii, one of the famous western directors died in Abruzzo.

On hearing the news, the Mayor of Teramo Maurizio Brucchi
and the Councillor for Culture Marco Chiarini, have expressed deep sorrow for
the death of the director. "With him is another less prominent figure and
relief that has been able to ferry sensitivity and typical nature of his native
land in a particular area such as the cinema".

Tonino Valerii was born May 20, 1934 in Montorio al
Vomano. In 1955 he moved to Rome to attend the Experimental Center of
Cinematography, where he studied with among others Alessandro Blasetti and
where he graduated in direction and screenwriting.

Valerii made his way with working on the film "Tutto
è musica" by Domenico Modugno, which he wrote. In 1964, the director was noted
by the icon of the new spaghetti westerns of the time, Sergio Leone. Leone
asked Tonino to act as assistant director for “Fistful of Dollars” and “For a
Few Dollars More” (although actually in “A Fistful of Dollars” Valerii is not
credited). In 1966, Valerii started his career as a director. In that year, he directed
and wrote the script for “A Taste for Killing”, with Craig Hill and George
Martin. Two years later he dedicated himself to the realization of the great
Ron Barker 'novel, Der Tod ritt dienstags
(“Day of Anger”), written by Ernesto Gastaldi, with two-stars of the spaghetti
westerns of the time: Giuliano Gemma and Lee Van Cleef, the latter after the
success obtained by “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and “For a Few Dollars
More. Valerii remained famous by the soundtrack of the movie made by Riz
Ortolani and recently used in Kill Bill Vol. 2 by QuentinTarantino, a big fan
of the genre. He was responsible for the innovative (for that time) cinematic
technique to follow the enemy from a distance in the "Day of
Anger"....

In 1973, he directed Henry Fonda and Terence Hill in “My
Name Is Nobody”, a film born from an idea by ​​Sergio Leone with Ernesto
Gastaldi’s screenplay, which happens to be a real tribute to Leo's cinema and
the western in general. A film, sold to manufacturers, as repeatedly stated
Leone, telling the first 3 minutes, without knowing how the film would be
continued. The film was a huge success, one of the top three grossing films of 1973.
In 1986 he wrote and directed “Unscrupulous” an erotic movie starring Marzio
Honorato and Sandra Wey (cast as the protagonist in the sequel “Histoire d'O”).
The film makes use of the soundtrack written by James Senese and Joe Amoruso as
well as the photography of Giulio Albonico.

In 1996 he was the creator of the film festival Roseto
Opera Prima, dedicated to the Italian first-time directors, which takes place
every summer in Roseto degli Abruzzi, now in its twenty-first edition.

Tonino Valerii is survived by his wife Rita, and his
children Francesca, Andrea, Luca, and his sister Rosella. The funeral will be
held in Rome.

About Me

Born in Toledo, Ohio in 1946 I have a BA degree in American History from Cal St. Northridge. I've been researching the American West and western films since the early 1980s and visiting filming sites in Spain and the U.S.A. Elected a member of the Spaghetti Western Hall of Fame 2010.